Water borne diseases threatening children in Damascus: UN

The United Nations has warned that water shortage poses a serious threat to children in the Syrian capital of Damascus where 5.5 million residents have been scrambling for clean water for nearly two weeks amid acts of sabotage by foreign-backed militants.

“There is a major concern about the risk of waterborne diseases among children,” the spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Christophe Boulierac, said on Friday.

He added that children in Damascus were going through many hardships to collect water for their families.

According to the UN, 15 million people across Syria are in need of help to access water and households spend nearly a quarter of their income on water.

UNICEF has provided generators to pump water and is delivering 15,000 liters of fuel daily to supply up to 3.5 million people with 200,000 cubic meters drinking water per day.